Ravi Shastri, Nasser Hussain in an On Air Spat during Commentary over UDRS

In a series that has got testy over time, two former captains indulged in a war of words over the UDRS and jealousy about Indian cricket’s status during a heated up commentary session. The Ravi Shastri-Nasser Hussain commentary stint was the talk of the town before Ian Bell managed to steal the drama at tea time on the third day of the second Test of the India England series at Trent Bridge, Nottingham.

Nasser Hussain, the former England captain, made a comment on air while Stuart Broad was celebrating his hat trick that it was a disgrace that the Umpire Decision Review System was not being used in its entirety because it could have meant Harbhajan Singh could have reviewed the decision given against him which was clearly wrong for a lbw decision because he had an inside edge. The comment did not go down well with Ravi Shastri who viewed the comment as typical of coming from an England contingent that chose to criticize any decision made by the BCCI.

Subsequently, Hussain took the opportunity to put it across to Ravi Shastri that he was not pleased with the criticism.

Nasser Hussain began with

I think I've earned that right to voice my opinion after 96 caps and captaining my country. The Television broadcaster pays me to air my views.

He went thereafter to clarify that he was not happy with the suggestion that his comment that not using the UDRS was a disgrace implied a disgust for Indian cricket and that he could be branded amongst those from the British newspapers and media who as Ravi Shastri, put it, could not digest the idea of India being the no.1 Team in the world.

Ravi Shastri was quick to point out that while Nasser Hussain was not the direct recipient of Shastri’s comments, Ravi refused to budge from his stance that he thought the BCCI had every right to stand by its decision on whether or not to use the UDRS or in what format, whether to include the Hawk Eye Technology or the Hot Spot or not. He even claimed that ‘Hot Spot had turned into a cold spot’ referring to the fact that Hot Spot was unable to pick up on all the edges that came off the bat.

Ravi Shastri also stood by his comment that the general feeling he got from being in England was that India being on top of the game with the Test ranking, the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 and the IPL being successful as a commercial venture was bringing about a jealous streak amongst the country. Although he refused to acknowledge that Hussain was the one he was taking a direct attack to, Ravi Shastri stated that it was his impression and that if Hussain was entitled to his opinion, so was he.

Thus ended a rather heated exchange between men who tried to maintain civility in the conversation that took place on air but succeeded in drawing attention from the match ever so briefly. Undoubtedly it would have stayed the talking point of a rather controversial day in Test cricket had it not been for the Ian Bell decision.